McKinney couple turns backyard into French Quarter-style oasis

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Brad Loper/Staff Photographer

Lynn and Edna Rodgers live in McKinney, but their hearts lie deep in South Louisiana. The couple met and married there and, with professional help, they have created a backyard retreat suitable for New Orleans’ French Quarter.

Four 25-foot-high ‘Natchez’ crape myrtles tower over a four-tiered fountain that acts as a focal point.

Architectural details abound that not only reflect Louisiana, but also the couple’s 1920s home with a Georgian architectural style.

A wrought-iron fence surrounding the backyard is topped with fleurs-de-lis. White columns and arbors lend plantation-like details, and the Rodgerses’ outdoor kitchen is the envy of any backyard cook.

Lynn, an orthopedic surgeon, and Edna cook most of their meals outside. Lynn’s favorite tool is the Dutch oven, which he uses to cook chicken, pheasant or roast beef over an open fire. A gas grill is used for burgers or even to roast a turkey. And, of course, there’s the “crawfish altar.” This low-setting gas burner is used to heat giant pots of boiling water to cook crawfish, shrimp and lobster.

The right fit

The Rodgerses moved into the house in 1995 and inherited a backyard that was a jumble. Each previous homeowner had added his or her own elements, and there was no cohesion of design.

“Where we feel at home is plantations and lush oak trees. We wanted to bring that here,” Edna says. “We wanted something that was lush and would survive here but looked like South Louisiana.”

The couple consulted with a handful of landscape architects, but none could match the Rodgerses’ vision.

“They were great people, and all showed us beautiful designs, but they didn’t give us what we wanted. They all drew up plans with Texas arbors,” Edna says.

Then the pair met Jason Osterberger, a landscape architect from Coppell. Osterberger also grew up in Louisiana and, by coincidence, his parents lived just a few blocks from Edna’s parents in Baton Rouge. He understood what the Rodgerses had in mind.

“It was a big project, and they were a little nervous because it was such a dramatic change that affected the entire architecture and aesthetics of the house,” Osterberger says.

Osterberger and his landscape designer, Janet Fodge, insisted on getting the details right. They consulted with Acme Brick Co. to create bricks for the patios that match those on the house (custom-made in 1920 and shipped to McKinney from Pennsylvania).

“Getting the bricks right took months,” Osterberger says.

An antique manhole cover from San Antonio was set into the ground near the fireplace, and it serves a specific purpose. Lynn places his Dutch oven on it to cool after his culinary creations are through cooking.

The masonry was distressed with grinders and wire brushes to make it look as though it had been in place for decades, if not a century.

Since the backyard was finished — a six-month project completed in 2007 — it has seen its share of parties and get-togethers. The Rodgerses love entertaining and like watching others enjoy the picturesque setting. Friends and neighbors have asked to use the backyard as a setting for family portraits and wedding photos. The couple happily obliges.

“The Rodgers are wonderful people. They don’t think they’re above anybody else,” Osterberger says. “That’s one reason why I think the wrought-iron fences are so important. You can see in, and it’s inviting. They’re so gracious and always having people over. They even tell their neighbors to come over and use the backyard even when they aren’t home.”

But through all the renovations of the property, one detail did not change: Edna’s rope swing, hanging from a tall limb of a 70-foot pecan tree.

“That wasn’t going anywhere,” Osterberger says. “That’s her therapy. Even during construction, we’d be working and she’d head to that swing. You could almost see all of her troubles go away.”

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